LAHORE FORTLahore has been seat of every successive government in India and specially the Punjab. Therefore one comes across a plentiful of structures and monuments that dot the landscape of Lahore. But two specimens of Mogul architecture cannot escape the eye of anyone entering Lahore from Rawalpindi on the Grand Trunk Road; the Badshahi Mosque and the Shahi QIlla or the Royal Fort.
The fort was initially constructed in 1566 AD by the Mughal Emperor Akbar, on the ruins of a mud fort which existed as early as 1021 AD. The Fort is rectangular and is located in the north western corner of Lahore, adjacent to the Walled City. It has 13 gates. The main gates are located alongside the centre of the western and eastern walls.
Located centrally in the city of Lahore, the Lahore Fort is a magnificent fortified palace complex. Its elaborate Mughal architecture is straight out of a storybook of the Mysterious East. The impressive twin-domed entrance leads into elaborately decorated courtyards and pavilions with water features, some with still intact sumptuous wall decorations of inlaid semiprecious stones and painted designs. It's large enough to allow several elephants carrying members of the royal family to enter at one time. There are a flight of stone steps specially built for ceremonial elephant processions.
The Sleeping Chamber of Mai Jindan houses a very interesting museum with relics from Mughal and the Sikh period. Hazoori Bagh (left) is an enclosure between the Alamgiri Gate of the Lahore Fort and eastern gate of the Badshahi Mosque. On 19 July 1932, the uppermost story collapsed and was never reconstructed. This garden was built by Ranjit Singh in 1813 to celebrate the capture of the famous Kohinoor diamond from Shah Shujah of Afghanistan. However, the fort was mercilessly plundered by the Sikhs when the gained control of Punjab in the 1800s. Ranjit Singh ruled Lahore for fifty years and stripped its monuments of practically all the ornaments and transferred them to Amritsar. The most badly hit was Sheesh Mahal, and most of its decorative mirrors were looted and later used for the beautification of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The part of the wall of the elephant Steps towards the forts inner gate are scarred by bullet marks, bearing testimony to the Sikh Civil War of 1847 AD. A party of Sikhs had mounted their guns on one of the minarets of the mosque across the courtyard from where they fired on their opponents.
Naulakha Pavilion is the only other structure that can claim to rival the celebrated Shish Mahal. Naulakha is probably a Sikh appellation (lit. pavilion costing 9 lakh rupees). This structure is placed at the central axis of the hauz (water reservoir) and is notable for its drooping bangladar roof, and distinctive pietra dura. Although much ravaged and largely robbed of its semi-precious stones in later periods, it is the same pavilion (bangla) of marble that Lahauri describes, "whose mosaics of cornelian coral, and other precious stones," he enthused "excite the emulation of the workshop of Mani" (the Persian artist credited with miraculous power while painting). Particularly noticeable is the courtly pietra dura in muqarnas capitals (stalactite capitals), abacus and the space between twin-column polyfaceted shafts. The guldasta (bouquet) and other floral compositions carried in the marble pietra dura dadoes and floral-interlacement borders, both externally and internally, reinforce the paradisiacal chahar bagh theme of the courtyard. The central white marble pierced screen on the west aspect, incorporating delicate floral tracery, is an almost exact replica of the one in the Shish Mahal Tambi Khana. Just as the tambi khana was for select royal use, surely the arrangement of similar three viewing windows placed in this fretwork screen points towards similar usage on the west. It is likely that the roof of this bangla was similar to the dazzling 'gilt copper plates' of Agra's Bangla-e-Darshan, a similarly constructed building with bangladar roof.
Shish Mahal was the palace where after the annexation of the Punjab by the British, the sovereignty of the Punjab, along with the fabulous Kohinoor diamond, was passed into the hands of the British. As you turn right at the entrance, you are overawed by the spectacular Shish Mahal commanding the north aspect. This is the famed 'Palace of Mirrors', a comparatively recent name given to the building because of the use of "a mosaic of glass inlaid with gypsum" for its decoration. The Shish Mahal is composed of several chambers and projects out in the form of a semi-octagon from the general alignment of the fortification called the Pictured Wall. The most impressive part of this structure is the central aiwan (hall) which is of handsome proportions rising to two-storey height. Its white marble arcade composed of sculpted shash-hilali (6-crescent) arches, and the cusped profile of engrailed spandrels is outlined with a delicate line of incised marble inlay.
The fort was initially constructed in 1566 AD by the Mughal Emperor Akbar, on the ruins of a mud fort which existed as early as 1021 AD. The Fort is rectangular and is located in the north western corner of Lahore, adjacent to the Walled City. It has 13 gates. The main gates are located alongside the centre of the western and eastern walls.
Located centrally in the city of Lahore, the Lahore Fort is a magnificent fortified palace complex. Its elaborate Mughal architecture is straight out of a storybook of the Mysterious East. The impressive twin-domed entrance leads into elaborately decorated courtyards and pavilions with water features, some with still intact sumptuous wall decorations of inlaid semiprecious stones and painted designs. It's large enough to allow several elephants carrying members of the royal family to enter at one time. There are a flight of stone steps specially built for ceremonial elephant processions.
The Sleeping Chamber of Mai Jindan houses a very interesting museum with relics from Mughal and the Sikh period. Hazoori Bagh (left) is an enclosure between the Alamgiri Gate of the Lahore Fort and eastern gate of the Badshahi Mosque. On 19 July 1932, the uppermost story collapsed and was never reconstructed. This garden was built by Ranjit Singh in 1813 to celebrate the capture of the famous Kohinoor diamond from Shah Shujah of Afghanistan. However, the fort was mercilessly plundered by the Sikhs when the gained control of Punjab in the 1800s. Ranjit Singh ruled Lahore for fifty years and stripped its monuments of practically all the ornaments and transferred them to Amritsar. The most badly hit was Sheesh Mahal, and most of its decorative mirrors were looted and later used for the beautification of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The part of the wall of the elephant Steps towards the forts inner gate are scarred by bullet marks, bearing testimony to the Sikh Civil War of 1847 AD. A party of Sikhs had mounted their guns on one of the minarets of the mosque across the courtyard from where they fired on their opponents.
Naulakha Pavilion is the only other structure that can claim to rival the celebrated Shish Mahal. Naulakha is probably a Sikh appellation (lit. pavilion costing 9 lakh rupees). This structure is placed at the central axis of the hauz (water reservoir) and is notable for its drooping bangladar roof, and distinctive pietra dura. Although much ravaged and largely robbed of its semi-precious stones in later periods, it is the same pavilion (bangla) of marble that Lahauri describes, "whose mosaics of cornelian coral, and other precious stones," he enthused "excite the emulation of the workshop of Mani" (the Persian artist credited with miraculous power while painting). Particularly noticeable is the courtly pietra dura in muqarnas capitals (stalactite capitals), abacus and the space between twin-column polyfaceted shafts. The guldasta (bouquet) and other floral compositions carried in the marble pietra dura dadoes and floral-interlacement borders, both externally and internally, reinforce the paradisiacal chahar bagh theme of the courtyard. The central white marble pierced screen on the west aspect, incorporating delicate floral tracery, is an almost exact replica of the one in the Shish Mahal Tambi Khana. Just as the tambi khana was for select royal use, surely the arrangement of similar three viewing windows placed in this fretwork screen points towards similar usage on the west. It is likely that the roof of this bangla was similar to the dazzling 'gilt copper plates' of Agra's Bangla-e-Darshan, a similarly constructed building with bangladar roof. 
Shish Mahal was the palace where after the annexation of the Punjab by the British, the sovereignty of the Punjab, along with the fabulous Kohinoor diamond, was passed into the hands of the British. As you turn right at the entrance, you are overawed by the spectacular Shish Mahal commanding the north aspect. This is the famed 'Palace of Mirrors', a comparatively recent name given to the building because of the use of "a mosaic of glass inlaid with gypsum" for its decoration. The Shish Mahal is composed of several chambers and projects out in the form of a semi-octagon from the general alignment of the fortification called the Pictured Wall. The most impressive part of this structure is the central aiwan (hall) which is of handsome proportions rising to two-storey height. Its white marble arcade composed of sculpted shash-hilali (6-crescent) arches, and the cusped profile of engrailed spandrels is outlined with a delicate line of incised marble inlay.
